Evidence of Things Unseen

Starred review from May 15, 2003
Wiggins (Almost Heaven) here links her themes with those of Melville's Moby-Dick. The elusive white whale of this book is nothing less than the building blocks of existence, and the obsessed seeker is a believer in the promises of modern science. World War I veteran, longtime bachelor, and quintessential common man Ray "Fos" Foster meets Opal, the love of his life, during his annual journey to North Carolina's Outer Banks to observe the August meteor showers. They marry, and the intelligent but inexperienced young wife is soon deeply involved with both the Knoxville photography business Fos runs with a quirky, doomed Army pal and with Fos's dreams of scientific discoveries. Opal joins Fos in exhibiting his X-ray machine at county fairs, demonstrating modern technology to skeptical crowds by irradiating Opal's foot. Fos's reputation as a knowledgeable amateur gains him employment with the Tennessee Valley Authority-which eventually claims Opal's inherited farm for a dam, evicting the couple and their young son. In the early 1940s another, better opportunity seems to fulfill the family's faith in both scientific progress and the American dream: a good job and comfortable housing at Site X, a.k.a. Oak Ridge, TN. But when Opal falls mysteriously ill, the hideous, unintended consequences of Fos's well-meaning quest overtake and batter two generations. Strong characters, vivid settings, and extreme situations are described in masterly prose; this is another tour de force from a first-class literary novelist. Recommended for most fiction collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/03.]-Starr E. Smith, Fairfax Cty. P.L., VA

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2003
Ray and Opal begin their fiery affair the day the bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, and their child, Lightfoot, lives through an affair-and fallout-of his own.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2003
Ray "Fos" Foster loves just three things in life: anything that lights up; his wife, Opal, the daughter of a glassblower; and his best friend, bemused, cynical Chance "Flash" Luttrell. Fos and Flash, who met in the trenches of World War I, start up a business as photographers in Knoxville, Tennessee, while Opal keeps the books. The first thing Opal discovers is that black sheep Flash is underwriting the whole enterprise with inherited wealth. But their congenial partnership ends badly when Flash falls in love with the 14-year-old daughter of a powerful politician and is jailed for violating the Mann Act. The Fosters head to the country, make a bust of farming, and take in a foundling they nickname Lightfoot. Fos' passion for science leads to work at a secret government facility, where the couple unknowingly contracts a fatal case of radiation poisoning. Things come full circle when Lightfoot turns 18 and, desperate for information about his parents, tracks down Flash. Leave it to Wiggins to make this quirky story of passion and science so hypnotic. The plotting is digressive, the themes are stark, the language is lush, and the idiosyncratic characters are entirely winning. A heartfelt tribute to the risks and rewards of following one's inner lights. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)

Starred review from May 19, 2003
The redoubtable Wiggins, always fearless in choosing subjects for her work (John Dollar; Almost Heaven) here tells the story of the atomic bomb through the eyes of one average Joe, amateur chemist Ray Foster, or "Fos," of Kitty Hawk, N.C. His fascination with "the kinds of lights nature can produce, the ones not always visible to man," serves him well in lighting the trenches during the Great War in France. When it is over, fellow soldier "Flash" Handy invites Fos to help him start a photography studio in Knoxville, Tenn. In a fated moment, Fos falls in love with a glassblower's daughter, the unflappable and luminescent Opal; they marry, and Opal helps run the studio. Meanwhile, Flash turns out to be a man with many secrets, one so tragic that it separates him permanently from Fos and Opal. Their sorrow at Flash's fate is somewhat forgotten when, after years of infertility, they are granted a baby, named Lightfoot. They move to land Opal inherits in rural Tennessee, but after it is claimed by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1942, Fos finds a job in Oak Ridge with a government lab that, unbeknownst to him, is on deadline to create the atomic bomb that will be dropped on Hiroshima. In response to that horrific event and other heartache, the Fosters do something desperate that only serves to betray their nine-year-old son. Lightfoot proves to be more courageous and determined than Fos or Opal ever were, and finally finds the only person left in the world who can help him. Wiggins fits her lyrical prose to a distinctly rural, Southern cadence, easily blending the vernacular with luminous imagery, adding bits of poetry, passages explaining scientific phenomena, interpolations about the Scopes trial and even references to Moby-Dick, which serves as a leitmotif. By the time she brings the narrative full circle in a masterful and moving plot twist, she has succeeded in creating "literature as an ongoing exploration of the human tragedy—man's condition." Wiggins comes into her own with this novel, her best book to date. Agent, Henry Dunow. (June 11)Forecast:Higgins's last big success was with
John Dollar, in 1989. This new novel has the potential to eclipse it, so long as it gets the review coverage it deserves.